coolcoil

Same here (though I bounce between EXP and PLT ) The youngest of my three is now past the toddler stage so now we have no worries about uncontrollable crying. We were fortunate over the years to only have had one incident where my 3-month old son, who had been an angel on the outbound flight flipped 180 degrees on the return and screamed from door closing all the way to the runway. Nothing would calm him. I would not have blamed the pilot for turning around and kicking us off. Fortunately he fell asleep as soon as we took off.

I rarely see parents who don't try at all, but I witnessed a doozy a couple of years ago in J on a 767 from MIA to ORD. A father, mother, and four kids ranging from baby to about nine years old. The baby was quiet. The other three were running up and down the aisles screaming. When the FA politely asked the father to have his children sit down, he literally said, "With what I paid for this flight, why should I have to take care of my kids?" He was a jerk for the entire flight, complaining about everything that did not meet his imagined standard that was roughly equivalent to flying in int'l F. He made it clear that he was going to file a complaint about the flight attendant when we landed. Fortunately, I was in a position to hang around at the gate and make sure the supervisor who received the complaint was informed that the FA and the rest of the flight crew had been nothing but professional and exhibited amazing patience with that customer during the entire flight.

My suggestion to parents is to try to get bulkhead. At least that way you don't have to worry about the kids kicking the seats in front of them and they can get down on the floor to play. The other alternative I've used is for members of the family to have the seats in front of the little ones so we keep the suffering in the family. It's actually tough for little kids not to kick the seats - when they are strapped in their legs stick straight out.